In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.

This study is based on the notion of "the postsecular society". I have identified both similar and dissimilar values within current and official publications regarding human rights and gender equality authored by the Swedish Feminist Party and the Church of Sweden. The aim of this study is to identify and review similarities and differences in values, as expressed in definitions and standpoints, and also to try to explain how it is that the actors have similar and dissimilar values. In this context I have chosen the sociologist Jürgen Habermas's theory about "the postsecular society" to increase the understanding how and why similar values within religious and secular actors are presented in, what Habermas calls, "the postsecular society". I have used a qualitative and comparative content analysis for this study. The result shows that the Swedish Feminist Party has a more humanistic view.

During some time there has been a debate whether or not logging contractors? profitability can be considered poor. The contractors? situation is important for maintaining long term relationships and continuity in the forest industry. A thorough analytic picture is however missing.

The EU Services Directive has caused an intense debate across Europe. Its purpose is to remove obstacles to trade and to open up the public sector to increased competition. The Swedish labour movement has been deeply involved in the policy process, and union leaders have proclaimed the compromise reached in the European Parliament in April 2006 as a success.In the paper two major aspects have been considered: the meaning of the Swedish model and the process of Europeanization. The Swedish model previously allowed for a strong labour movement, through a social democratic hegemony, but the EU membership has implied new conditions for union influence. The paper examines how this change has affected the strategic choices of the Swedish labour movement, and how it has been manifested in the union's work with the Services Directive.

Emma Nordin: Emilie Du Châtelets analys av lycka: Upplösning av polemiken mellan illusion och förnuft. Uppsala universitet: inst. för idé- och lärdomshistoria, C-uppsats, höstterminen, 2012. The 18th century is a time period known for its battle with superstition, illusion and falseness. With the Torch of Reason the philosophers of the time were set on vanquishing everything untrue and lead mankind into what they themselves called the Enlightenment. Happiness had moved from Heaven to Earth in science, truth and pleasure.

In this study I examine the debates, intentions and ideas concerning the physical and created schoolroom as they appeared in the journal Lärarnas Tidning - Svensk Skoltidning (Teachers Journal ? Swedish School journal) during the period 1962-1974. The built and created school building and its environment has been a relatively neglected topic in Swedish pedagogical research.When the Swedish comprehensive system transformed during the sixties, with new curricula and a common nine year school, many school professionals realised the need for a new and pedagogically adjusted schoolhouse.The early seventies marked a decline after a ten year period with an extensive building program affecting large parts of Sweden, and where schoolhouses had been an important part. The debate concerning the new Swedish school building was sometimes inspired and refreshing, but resistance and bitterness was also expressed. In part, this should be seen against the backdrop of the introduction of a new educational system, using new and sometimes untested pedagogical ideas, together with the fast transformation of the Swedish society.The research method is an exploratory textual analysis focused on five different issues: ideas concerning community centres and integration, participatory and democratic issues about the built environment, the school building as a pedagogical tool, aesthetic considerations, and the working environment.

ADHD is the fastest growing diagnosis of the last decade and there is an ongoing debate about how ADHD should be understood with a psychosocial perspective opposed to a medical perspective. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a Swedish daily and evening newspaper (Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter) portrays ADHD. Further, the study asked whether medical or social explanation is used in the discourse that appears in newspaper articles, how ADHD is described as well as which people are quoted in the articles. In this study we used Norman Fairclough´s critical discourse analysis with the 26 sampled articles which we believe highlight different perspectives on ADHD diagnosis.Our study shows that there are representatives cited in the articles from school, the judiciary and the medical field. However representatives from social work are conspicuous by their absence.

In this study is being examined how cities can be planned in the face of rising water levels and extreme weather, due to the changing climate. The starting point has been to investigate how the problems can be tackled and how the positive sides of water in the city can be strengthened, and synergy effects and greater sustainability be achieved thereby. The method has been literature studies and case studies containing interviews and visits. Göteborg, Kristianstad and Arvika have been studied for discussions and ideas about adaptation. Today, building near water is very popular which brings both advantages and disadvantages.

The debate on the future of Nuclear power in Sweden has increased with the discussion on global warming. The uncertainty of fossil fuel- and carbonprices the latest years has aroused considerable interest in Nuclear from power companies, industry and politicians. Nuclear power plants have negligible CO2 emissions and are not directly affected by increased price of emission rights and fossil fuels. The future power production needs to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to become sustainable. The purpose of this study is to examine the value for power producers to have the option to invest in Nuclear power and how a Nuclear power venture would affect future electricity prices. The study uses two methods, a traditional cash flow model and real option analysis, to estimate the value of Nuclear power.

The intimate connection between autonomy and decision-making in applied health care, especially in various kinds of consent and refusal has taken center stage in medical ethics since the Salgo decision in 1957. Prior to that time, the physician?s supposedly moral duty to provide appropriate medical care typically surpassed the legal obligation to respect patient?s autonomy. The Salgo decision concluded that physicians have a legal duty to provide facts necessary for the patient to make an informed decision. "The doctor knows best" long ago was replaced with "The doctor proposes; the patient disposes." There is no legal obligation for the patient?s choice to be palatable to anyone, other than that patient himself/herself.

This study focuses on small scale hydropower in Sweden. This means plants with a capacity of up to 10 MW. The study has a special focus on plants with a capacity up to 2 MW. The study has three aims. It strives to describe the small-scale hydroelectric industry in Sweden.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the relation between art, politics and ideology in contemporary art, focusing on the drawings depicting Mohammed the prophet as a dog, made by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks. His work is contextual in accordance with current art practice, thus letting everything related to the artwork become part of it, a circumstance the thesis tries to grasp in the widest respect possible. The drawings were published and spread throughout Swedish media, where they were later defended and criticized by a number of writers. Many debaters argued that the art work represents Western freedom of speech, and that to criticize them is to criticize fundamental democratic rights. This discourse tended to disqualify all arguments that questioned why such force was put into defending and spreading offensive pictures.

This Master?s thesis explores three contemporary Swedish poets? ? Lars Mikael Raattamaa, Anna Hallberg and Johan Jönson ? understanding of their work as a political activity. By using Jonathan Culler?s theory on literary competence and literary conventions as a theoretical tool for an idea analysis, the three poets' arguments for or against certain literary techniques, and their ideas about readers and reading, are explored and discussed. In what ways are established literary methods questioned by the three poets? In what ways are established theories on readers and reading questioned? In what way can their poetic work be regarded as political? As a background, the debate about poetry in Swedish newspapers and literary magazines is presented, as well as the common focus on readers and reading in social sciences and in humanities and arts.

The rise of the Swedish Democrats, as a political party in Sweden, has been surroundedby controversy both within and outside of the media. As such a polarizingtopic, the party has been the focus of negative and positive attention. On onehand it has been considered a racist and xenophobic party due to its policies onimmigrants. On the other, it has also been seen as a solution to what has been consideredby some to be a constant problem in Sweden, for those same policies.These policies are motivated by what the party perceives as a threat to Swedishsociety. That is to say, immigrants are a threat to Sweden because of thechanges they impose on the Swedish identity.

The law of preferential rights has, since the 70?s, given företagshypotek a high priority after a company has claimed bankruptcy. After the costs concerning the insolvent estate and the liens, företagshypotek has received full refund. The effect has been that the unprioritized creditors often have not recieved any of their claims after the bank have re-cieved theirs. Many countries have during the last decades deviated from this law and in 2003, Sweden decided to take the same path.